Vowel Sound / u / as in 'blue'- American English Pronunciation

Learn how to pronounce the vowel sound /u/. Practice pronunciation of the /u/ sound, used in words like "food," "flu," or "cool."
Find out about the essential spelling rules for the /u/ vowel. Improve your American accent with exercises recorded by a professional speech therapist. Check out a bonus track at the end of the video! :)

Quick links:
• Vowel sound /u/, as in "blue:" 00:00
• How to make the /u/ sound: 01:06
• Pronunciation exercise: 02:15
• Most common spelling for the sound /u/: 04:30

Related videos:
#AmericanPronunciation #VowelSounds #BackVowels
► Interactive Vowel Sounds Chart: American English Pronunciation

[THIS VIDEO HAS ENGLISH, SPANISH, JAPANESE, CHINESE, KOREAN, VIETNAMESE, PORTUGUESE, AND RUSSIAN SUBTITLES]
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TRANSCRIPT

Hello there! This is the "Sounds American" channel.
In this video, we’re going to talk about the American vowel sound /u/, as in the word "blue."
You can also hear this sound in words like "rule," "too," "do," or "new."
Please, note, that we’ll be using a special phonetic symbol — /u/ — for this sound.

The /u/ sound is not unique to American English, but non-native English speakers usually make this sound too relaxed.
Listen to these words: "pool" - "pull."
If they sound the same to you or if you’re not sure about it, this video might help you. Keep watching, and let’s find out how to make this vowel sound.

OK, to make the /u/ sound, you should focus on the correct position of your jaw, lips, and tongue.
Open your mouth a little and push your lips out, making a small, tense circle.
Pull your tongue far back in your throat and tense it.
Raise the back of the tongue toward the roof of your mouth.
Remember, the /u/ is a tense sound, so your lips and tongue should be tense.
Your tongue should be pulled back in your mouth.
Let’s try saying it: /u/, /u/, /u/.

[Pronunciation exercise]
Now, let’s practice this sound in some words.
You’ll see a word on the screen and hear its pronunciation. Like this.
You’ll have a few seconds to pronounce the word if you want to.
Let’s begin.

• blew
• bloom
• blue
• boom
• boots
• broom
• chew
• choose
• cool
• crew
• dew
• do
• doom
• due
• flew
• flu
• food
• fool
• fruit
• glue
• google
• goose
• grew
• group
• hoop
• juice
• June
• knew
• loop
• loose

You’re done! Congratulations!

By the way, did you know that the /u/ sound is written as the letter 'u' in less than 50% of cases?
More on the spelling:
the /u/ sound is written as the letter 'u' in 47% of cases.
It’s also often written as the combination of the letters 'oo' or as the single letter 'o,' as in the words "too" and "do," respectively.
Sometimes, this vowel sound is represented by the combinations of the letters 'ew,' as in the word 'new,' or 'ou,' as in the word "soup."

Thanks for watching! Hope you find it useful.
Stay tuned on our Sounds American channel!

[SoundsAmerican]

🎉Great news!🎉 Our brand new Sounds American website is up and running!🚀🎊 There's lots of content on pronunciation.🤓You can start with the article about the /u/ sound:

[mahdinoroozi]

Hello First of all, i want to say thank you for your good teaching, after than your channel is the best channel to learn correct and complete pronunciation 🙏🙏🙏

[shibenikvaysyor]

4:41 I'd be very grateful for the reference that lists the percentages of the sounds in the standard American English. For example, how many English words have /ʊ/ sound? How many have /u/ sound? Etc.

[marcoantoniomoralescruz]

Great video and the diagram Is excellent!!! The final part where there is a sentences containing the sound was great!

[FYS]

Thanks a lot, i pronounced it right for the first time in my life

[ramzy-]

all of your videos are very helpful, Thank you so much.

[moeali]

I have to say this again and again, it's amazing how you explain things

tanks a lot our master🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓

[benchoi]

when practicing this video i use vowel diagram and it sounds clear to understand vowels

[HaiNguyen-hmlb]

Your work has a great value. I’m so thankfull with your video. They has been useful for my growth in this learning.

[radhwenhrizi]

Let us make good words :D this is the best channel to improve our pronunciation, by the way I'm a new fun of this channel :D

[AhmedZakaria-io]

Hello there how can i get this application to practice it and test my pronunciation?

[nkechibernard]

Thanks, i can read but finds it difficult to write, is there any other way i can be able to write.

[anoshasokra]

Thank alot.. Really great channel.. I like ur app. also ❤️❤️

[drayyoutube]

To me, this sound is a bit different in English than it is in most languages. For example, the u in the Spanish word “uno” sounds like a more back of the throat vowel than the “oo” in the English word “food”.

[biswajitnayak]

Thanks this helps me tremendously .please let know where we can get the consolidate list of all the ipa sounds .

[agolucosozgupuro]

I think this letter will be easy for German, Finnish and Turkish speakers. Like the "üu" sound.

[rachealtanda]

Hello there. Thank you for the nice video on vowels. Will you help me with word transcription please.
Thank you
Rachel Tanda

[waterlee]

Thank you, sir. This is very good video.

[darkyenalex]

Why did u not pronounce in the same way the words: Dew and Do if they have the same phonemas?